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Neil Cleary - A less cautious tunesmith

"I've been around long enough, trying different things, and kind of hanging in the background, watching how things go, and now that I'm finally putting my chips on the table -- it feels cool." So says singer, songwriter and multi-threat musician Neil Cleary, who

Paul Brewster - Won't lose Ricky's number

Paul Brewster, tenor singer and guitar player with Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, wants to be clear -- very clear. "I haven't got any plans to leave Ricky," he says. "I don't want people to get the idea I'm going out

The Lost Tradition of Black String Bands

It is a summer day in 1975, and 76-year-old DeFord Bailey, the legendary harmonica pioneer of the Grand Ole Opry, is sitting on the porch outside his apartment entertaining visitors. Today he has decided not to play the harp, and has brought out a five-string banjo, which he picks with

Down From The Mountain - Rupp Arena (Lexington, KY)

Outside Rupp Arena, scalpers were asking as much as $125 a ticket for the sold-out opening date of the Down From The Mountain tour. A few years back, the only Rupp event that could have commanded such a price was a University of Kentucky basketball game. Lately, though, even the

Dan Baird & The Sofa Kings - Redneck Savant

Everyone's favorite satellite from Georgia, Dan Baird, has recently been serving up twang and thunder in the refreshingly blue-collar Yayhoos. Here, via a 2000 concert set recorded in Switzerland, he tugs that collar down and proudly shows off his farmer's tan line. And then some; the

Webb Pierce - Caught In The Webb: A Tribute To The Legendary Webb Pierce

Webb Pierce should have been in the Country Music Hall of Fame a decade before he died of pancreatic cancer in 1991. He didn't get there until 2001. Shortly after he died, I began researching a story on his life. I planned to speak with some of his

Gene Clark - Gypsy Angel: The Gene Clark Demos 1983-1990

By the turn of the 1980s, ex-Byrd Gene Clark's glory days were dwindling fast. Despite three good-to-dazzling mid-1970s solo albums, the major-label crash-and-burn of McGuinn, Clark & Hillman in late 1979 (after such a promising rebirth just two years before) signaled a retrenchment for Clark. By the time